


Sugar Cubes

by oodal (softkyun)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Horses, Platonic Relationship, horse boy oikawa, i don't even know how else to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-05 23:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4199703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softkyun/pseuds/oodal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I was giving her a sugar cube because she did good today. Also, who made you the master of all horses everywhere?" </p><p>"I made myself the master of the horses because I am the master of the horses."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sugar Cubes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [junebirds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/junebirds/gifts).



> hi!!! this is a treat fill for junebirbs for haikyuu summer hols. i'm not really that well-versed in horses, but i really wanted to write this because i remembered this girl who used to be obsessed with horses, and then i thought about oikawa, and now this has happened. u wu; i hope you enjoy it and happy summer!!

"I saw you feed him a sugar cube yesterday and you can't do that!! You can't give him that many sugar cubes!" 

Hajime jerks his hand back from Flex with a start, taking a second to breathe in and settle his surprised pulse before he turns his head to look towards the entrance to the barn. Standing there is a boy, about his age, in an outfit that Hajime would never dream of wearing - at least not until he's a good rider, and maybe doing weekend shows when he's taller, because otherwise he would feel like a fake - with hair that's shinier than Flex's after he brushes it really well.

"... Huh?" Hajime says, inarticulate and puzzled.

"What I said is, stop feeding your horse sugar cubes because too much sugar like that is bad, bad! You gotta give them natural sugar stuff like apples!! Dummy!!" The little boy stomps his foot, pointing to a cream colored horse in the stall closest to the barn and continuing on to say,

"See how pretty her coat is! That's 'cause I pay really good attention to her and don't. Overfeed. Sugar!!"

Hajime huffs, because if he wanted to be scolded, he would've stayed in tae-kwon-do like his dad wanted him too. Crossing his arms, he stares at the hay scattered across the barn floor and says, 

"I was giving her a sugar cube because she did good today. Also, who made you the master of all horses everywhere?" He shouldn't be rude, he knows (he imagines his mom would give him a smack on the behind if he did, or maybe yank his ear in that annoying way that she does when he wants to go see the new tacks at the shop, or when he wants to look at the cool cowboy boots in the shoe store) but this boy was rude first. He could've at least gave him advise nicely.

"I made myself the master of the horses because I am the master of the horses." Something about the way his chest puffs out and he sticks out his tongue (and Hajime notices that he has a ribbon pinned to his chest, and Hajime doesn't even have a ribbon yet, and does that say best in show???) and how he preens under his statementmakes Hajime's stomach tight and angry. He tries not to frown too hard as he looks away.

"Whatever, horse boy. Bye." He turns on his heel, boots clicking, and leaves the barn, pretending he doesn't hear the little boy shout after him in the background that he can "make his horse's mane extra extra pretty and teach him a cool jump trick" because he doesn't care about that little boy. He doesn't.

\---

"Iwa-chaaaan, that's not at all how it happened!"

"That's definitely how it happened." 

Tooru pouts, leaning forward to put his head up against Al's mane, and remarks, "I think you're being a little biased because you didn't know anything about horses."

"I was just starting, geez, and you come in and yell at me for feeding sugar cubes to Flex?" 

"That's because I knew better than that and I just wanted to help!" Tooru protests, because this really isn't a fair assumption. Just because he knew more about horses than Hajime doesn't mean he was a snobby little brat about it. He just shared his knowledge with the world and that was that, especially if it came to horse health. Sure, riding was great (and he was great at it, he thought a little smugly), but he just liked horses. Their big, expressive eyes... The mystery... The cool factor. The history! Horses were... horses were..

"Earth to Oikawa, you're about to run into a fence." 

Tooru jerks the reins - maybe a little too hard, he thinks regretfully - and glances over to Hajime.

"Whatever. I wasn't that bad. I was just knowledgable and well-trained." 

"You were that bad. Remember...."

\---

"... Are you.. neighing at your horse?"

Hajime has never seen Tooru's head whip around so fast. The last time he saw Tooru, actually, was at their exhibit show last weekend, and Tooru was the kind of rider that moved with his horse - and his horse was graceful, well-trained, and somehow the picture of perfect. 

Tooru, with mud (Hajime hopes it's mud, but one time he saw Tooru cuddling with Al in the stall and he's pretty sure the stalls weren't that clean) on his nose, is not perfect. He is weird. He neighs at his horse, cuddles it in the stall, kisses its forehead, its neck, and its nose every time before he rides, and is basically the weirdest kid he's ever known. 

Somehow, within the last year of knowing each other, this weird kid (horse boy, everyone at school calls him, because he has notebooks with horses and he did his project on horses and he chatters on about his horse whenever anyone asks a question, related or not) they've become best friends.

"I'm communicating with her!" Tooru answers stubbornly, and Hajime rolls his eyes, fond of Tooru's quirks even when he pretends he isn't.

"Well, can you tell her that I wanna go swimming and you said you'd come with?" Tooru beams at Hajime's reminder, facing up to Al and kissing her nose as he does. Although Hajime loves his horse, he's a little too worried about being bitten (flashbacks to the time he was pantsed by an angry Shetland), but Tooru couldn't care less. After Tooru's handed her a carrot, he comes to the door, smelling - as he often does, despite his love of fruit body was, like sweat and barn and the chamomile horse shampoo he likes using on Al - and Hajime stares him down.

"Shower before you get in my pool."

"I will~~ Can I teach you how to horse paddle, though, this time?"

".. It's called doggy-paddling. I can't learn horse paddling when it doesn't exist."

"Horses do it better!"

\---

"They do! Haven't you heard about the horses tha--"

Hajime groans, pulling his helmet off and shaking off his damp hair as he hangs it up on his hook. 

"Not this again."

"You love this story!"

"No, you love this story."

"Iwa-chaaaan.... You're mean... geez, what'd I do to get a best friend like you? The horses are better to be than you are!"

"You'd say that if I was the nicest guy in the world."

"Would not!"

Tooru thinks that Hajime is about to disagree with him again, but instead, Hajime just nudges Tooru's shoulder with his own, eyes wide as he points towards one of the more open stalls, home to a pregnant mare that Wakatoshi, a rider that they don't see around too often, owns.

"Is it just me, or is..." He doesn't finish his sentence. 

"S-she's... she's... she's going to have it!! She's gonna give birth!! Iwa-chan, we're gonna see a newborn---"

Hajime would've let him finish, but Tooru breaks his sentence himself, promptly combusting into tears and holding the sleeves of his riding jacket to his eyes as he sobs.

Hajime looks at the ceiling and wonders why his life isn't a TLC show yet, eight years after they met.

\---

"Hey," Tooru begins, in a way that is weirdly not-Tooru. 

Hajime glances up from the dirt floor of the barn, rake in hand and reeking of manure, to fix his gaze on Tooru. Tooru fidgets a little bit, in another very not-Tooru manner, and flips his hair out of his eyes with a quiet sigh.

"You... don't think the horse thing is weird, do you?" He asks, and Hajime is, to say the least, floored. Throughout their entire friendship together, Tooru has never seemed anything less than oblivious of what people thought about his crazy infatuation with horses, about his obsessive need to get better and score higher and care for each and every horse that crosses his path and enters the stables. This sudden shift of mannerisms is... confusing, to say the least, and the way Hajime frowns has Tooru moving even more anxiously, speaking suddenly,

"Never mind, forget it, I'm going to go, uh, work on the broken hurdle," He says with a confidence Hajime has long learned to recognize as false. Tooru can be all bluff no real confidence sometimes, and this is one of those times, Hajime knows.

"If I thought it was that weird, would I still hang out with you? Maybe I thought about not being your friend when we were kids and you whinnied at me at school, but... okay, it's weird, but..." Hajime shrugs, not as good at comforting Tooru as he should be at this point, but it's fine.

"It's weird, but it's you."

Tooru pauses at this, and the fidgeting stops. His eyes widen a little bit, and then his eyes crinkle, and he looks soothed (at least for now, Hajime figures).

"Thanks, Iwa-chan~ I always knew you loved me!!" Maybe Tooru's voice wavers a little unsurely, but Hajime brushes it off to emotion, acting, all of the above, or something else hiding up Tooru's sleeve.

"That's a bold and exaggerated statement," He sighs, and then he reaches for the rake and shoves it in Tooru's direction.

"Now help me clean, or I'll feed my horse too many sugar cubes again or something."

"You wouldn't!!"

"... Just start raking, horse boy."

"Iwa-chaaaaaan!!"

**Author's Note:**

> edit: ps, al is short for alien because i couldn't give it up sorry


End file.
